Illuminated
by xLabyrinthine
Summary: Cidney Highwind could swear on anything in the world that he had never seen such beauty as when he gazed on Vincent's tall form that night, illuminated by the soft moon. Read warnings inside!


Warnings: Both homosexual and heterosexual pairings mentioned, swearing, some spoilers. More may be added as more chapters are written.

My notes: Pairings in this one is Vincent and Cid. Mentioned Tifa and Rude, as well as one sided Rufus and Cloud. Work in progress.

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><p>Vincent pulled the cowl of his cloak higher up on his face as he sighed and tried to ignore the rowdy cheering and talking from the inhabitants of the other side of the bar.<p>

Every few months AVALANCHE, the Turks, Rufus Shinra himself and some other friends would gather at The Seventh Heaven, Tifa's beloved bar, to party like there was no tomorrow and hang out for a few days after. The only difference this time was that they had been able to find Vincent and invite him. He thought he would have managed to hide pretty well, living in the Ancient Forest. But then a giant aircraft had started to hover over the otherwise peaceful forest, and Cid Highwind and Tifa Lockhart had climbed down via a ladder and greeted him with a smile. They had then invited him to a party, this party, that they had planned to hold in two months, and he had eventually agreed to coming. Two months had sounded like forever. And now he cursed his own stupidity. Vincent Valentine did not enjoy parties.

The party had just started. Vincent himself had actually arrived earlier than everyone else and was happily greeted by Tifa. After politely greeting her he had promptly hidden in the unlit parts of the room, and now watched as the others talked and greeted each other. Now the whole AVALANCHE had arrived, and Barret had brought little Marlene. So far Tifa was the only one in the room aware that Vincent was already here as well.

Suddenly the door to the bar burst open, and Reno entered the room dramatically with a cheer;

"Don't you worry, yo! The Reno is here!" he bellowed before throwing himself at Tifa, hugging her and trying to nuzzle her boobs. She pushed him away with a snort, and then blushed a little as the tall and dark form of Rude entered the bar. The silent man nodded at her before he walked over to her and kissed her on the cheek.

"Hello, Teef." he said.

"Hey, Rude." Tifa said, still blushing. It was no secret to anyone in the room that they were sweet on each other. But so far they had only dated for about two weeks.

Then Rufus entered, with Tseng as his ever loyal shadow. Elena was only a step or so behind them. Rufus paused right inside the door, and looked at them with a regal, but playful, look. "What are these peasants doing here?" he asked Tseng, before he broke out in a grin and greeted AVALANCHE properly. He, of course, spent extra time greeting with Cloud. It was not a secret, either, that Rufus was VERY sweet to Cloud. Cloud, on the other hand, barely tolerated Rufus presence at the best days. Not that that deterred Rufus Shinra very much. He did like a good challenge after all. Cloud merely nodded in Rufus' direction, keeping his distance as Rufus tried to get a hug from the blonde man, or at least a handshake.

Vincent watched all this from his dark corner, observing the interactions. Reno seemed to bounce up and down in excitement, nothing unusual there, but Rude and Tseng seemed a bit worked up too. That was unusual indeed, Vincent thought. Even Rufus himself seemed to have this excited glint in his ice blue eyes.

"What the fuck are ya so worked up 'bout?" Cid asked Reno in his usual grumpy way.

"We heard that Vincent Valentine is coming this time, yo!" Reno answered, bouncing up and down with his quite lanky body.

"Why would ya care 'bout Vince?" Cid asked, now sounding suspicious. As if he would need protection against the Turks, Vincent thought with a low snort of amusement. But it was rather sweet how Cid would insist that he needed protection and Tifa seemed to think he needed mothering. They were completely wrong, of course, but it was a nice gesture.

"He's fucking legendary among us!" Reno answered, seeming not to notice Cid's accusing tone, or choosing to ignore it. "He was the best damn Turk in history! I can't wait to meet him. When will he arrive?"

Tifa laughed a little in amusement, before turning to Vincent's dark corner.

"Vincent?" she asked softly. "Want to come over and say hello?"

All heads whipped to his direction as he emerged from the shadows. He was still dressed in his usual clothes; the black leather, his red cloak and glinting, brass claw. He also had several guns on him, but only one was visible, the Cerberus, which he carried on his tight. He never liked being anywhere unarmed, and the rest had long since accepted this. Being 1.9 meters tall and with blood red eyes, he knew he made an impressive presence, which was confirmed by Reno and Elena's swallowing as he came into the light. But the Turks still stared at him with something akin to worship in their eyes, and Rufus looked fascinated as well.

Cid greeted him with a laugh. "Figure that ya would be lurking somewhere, Vince! Come 'ere!" He then carefully hugged Vincent with one arm, taking care not to trap the man, knowing he did not like being neither being touched nor feeling trapped. Vincent did not return the hug, but he did not break it off either, and that was good enough for Cid. He released Vincent after a few seconds.

Reeve stepped forward with a smile, Cait Sith on his shoulder. He walked past the gapping Turks and slightly shocked Rufus on his way to Vincent. They didn't seem to believe what they were seeing, and Reeve couldn't help but to chuckle a little. They looked like children. He greeted Vincent with a handshake, and then grabbed Vincent's unclawed hand in both his.

"How have you been doing, Vincent?" he asked gently as he held the gloved hand.

"I'm fine." Vincent mumbled into his cloak. "I've been living in the Ancient Forest lately."

"So I've heard." Reeve answered with a chuckle. "Cid and Tifa spent weeks tracking you down."

"With a little helping hand from you, I suppose." Vincent said in a slightly sarcastic, but not unfriendly, voice at the WRO director. Reeve just smiled and nodded slightly.

Now Rufus cleared his throat, as if composing himself, before stepping forward. When he closed in on cloaked man, Vincent pulled his hand away from Reeve before taking a tentative step back, away from the president of Shinra. Rufus stopped two meters or so from Vincent, and put out his hand in Vincent's direction.

"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Valentine." he said, surprisingly polite. "I believe that we have not met yet."

Vincent just stared at him with emotionless and eerie blood red eyes for over a minute, without blinking. Rufus evenly met his eyes, trying to remain calm and collected. In the end, Vincent broke the stare, letting his wild black hair fall in front of his eyes before neatly sidestepping Rufus, ignoring his outstretched hand, walking over to Yuffie, Nanaki, Barret and Marlene to softly greet them as well. He let Marlene hug him, and he even hugged back, not wanting to hurt such a small girl's feelings. Everyone in AVALANCHE knew that Vincent was Marlene's hero.

After that he walked over to Cid again, still having the Turks and Rufus watching his every step.

"Chief." He mumbled into the cowl. "I need your help with something."

The usually cross captain lit up like the sun after being shielded by a cloud. "Sure thing, Vince! What ya need?" he asked eagerly. Just as there was no secret that Tifa and Rude fancied each other, and Rufus fancied Cloud, all of them knew that Cid was more than just a little star struck about a certain tall, black clad man. He was always looking out for Vincent and he always was gentler both in actions and tone when he was near him.

Vincent gifted him with a tiny smile that could not be seen thanks to the high cowl of his cloak, but he also let it shine through his eyes, and he knew that Cid noticed. "I need some help with this." he said and tapped one gloved finger at his claw. "The joints have been acting up lately. I suppose they need oiling and cleaning, but I do not have the right tools. Perhaps I could borrow some from you?" he asked.

"I'll fix it!" Cid said, still shining with eagerness. "Let me get some tools and I'll…" he didn't finish, instead he hurried out of the room.

"It can wait until…" Vincent tried to say, but Cid had already sprinted out of the room. He let out a sigh as he heard Yuffie and Tifa share a giggle at the display before sitting at one of the tables. Cloud sat down beside him. They quietly regarded each other, red meeting blue. There simply was no words needed between the two of them, they understood each other better than anyone ever could. And they both hopped that no one would ever have a reason to share what they did.

Seeing his, or so he liked to think, Cloud sit down Rufus went over to the same table and sat next to Cloud, sending him a smirk. Cloud chose to ignore him. Seeing their boss sit, the Turks followed and filled the last chairs at that table. Elena got to sit next to Vincent, and she didn't look quite sure if she should swoon or throw up. She managed to suppress both urges.

Vincent seemed to ignore them all and reached into his cloak to fiddle with something.

"Help?" Cloud asked lowly, and just nodded in answer as Vincent shook his head.

Suddenly the claw fell down to hit the surface of the table with a clang, making all people at the table except Vincent and Cloud flinch slightly at the unexpected noise. The Turks and Rufus stared in shock at the brass claw that lay on the table, no longer connected to Vincent. His left sleeve now hanged emptily from about the elbow down. Then Reno blurted out;

"I thought that was a fuckin' weapon or glove, yo!" He then spluttered slightly as he realized what he said and winced as someone, possibly Rude, kicked him in the shin.

Vincent just looked at him for a few moments, his eyes endlessly empty. "It's not." he then said simply. Reno just nodded dumbly. Cid then chose to make his appearance, tool box in hand, and he frowned in a disapproving way at the Turks sitting at the same table as Vincent, but didn't make any snide comment now that he had a task to complete for his crush. He simply dragged a chair over to the table they are were sitting at and forced it between the awed Elena and the motionless Vincent, before he picked up the claw and began his work. The Turks and Rufus watched in interest as Cid skillfully took the claw apart and started to clean the joints with a rag before oiling it.

"Want me to fix up the shoes, too?" Cid asked Vincent as he started to put the claw together again.

"No." Vincent said simply. "Maybe later, more private. But thank you."

Cid just nodded and smiled happily and perhaps a little bit perversely. More private sounded nice… But he forced those thoughts away quickly before they could make a visit to his pants. He did not wish for Vincent to see THAT… Well, not yet at least.

Vincent smiled softly to himself. He knew what Cid wanted. But what he wanted himself… That was harder to know. He liked the company of Cid, more than anyone else. But at the same time he liked the solitude, the silence. He was scared that a relationship with the brass pilot would be smothering for him, and that they would end up hating each other. But on the other hand, the pilot was never more mild and gentle than when he was with Vincent. And he had never forced him into anything. Vincent had withdrawn a bit from Cid when he learned of Cid's feelings, hoping that the man would give up and find someone else. Someone who deserved such a warm, strong and caring man. Because Vincent knew he didn't.

Vincent and Cid gazed into each other's eyes. A low startled gasp be heard from the Turks as Vincent reached up with his hand and pulled the cowl down, revealing his lower face. Cid didn't move at all, frozen in place as in fear that any movement would break the moment, and scare the beautiful man away. They had the attention of everyone in the room as Vincent slowly, so slowly leaned closer to Cid. Then he kissed him. A soft meeting of lips, hardly any movement at all. But Cid could feel how his eyes started to burn with the beginning of tears at the tenderness. This was everything he had ever wanted. To have Vincent feel anything for him. Vincent released Cid from the kiss, sitting straight up again.

Then he slowly closed his eyes, and started to dissipate into a strange black mist. The Turks gasped and Tseng moved in front of Rufus, shielding him with is body. Reno even drew his Electro-Rod. But the mist only swirled softly around Cid for a few seconds, before disappearing through the roof of the room. Cid cleared his throat and tried to discreetly wipe his eyes before standing up. He grabbed the gauntlet and turned to the other people in the room.

"Yeah, I'll just go and... Well, see ye guys tomorro', okay?" he said, before hurrying to the stairs to join Vincent on the roof. Before disappearing, Reno suddenly broke the silence by giving a lewd wolf-whistle after Cid. Cid just unceremoniously flipped him the middle finger over his shoulder without stopping his fast striding. He had far more important things to do than to fight with Reno. Far more important things.

As he opened the hatch to the roof and crawled out, Cid was met by an amazing sight. Cidney Highwind could swear on anything in the world that he had never seen such beauty as when he gazed on Vincent's tall form that night, illuminated by the soft moon. His pale flesh seeming to glow and his wild hair looked darker than the night itself. Cid did not know if this vision before him was an angel or a demon, but that did not matter. He put down the claw on the roof before he walked closer, carefully, afraid that any wrong word or move would make everything shatter, like a fragile dream. Cid wrapped his arms around Vincent's thin waist from behind, burrowing his face in the other man's dark hair. As he held Vincent close, he felt one tentative and unsure hand grasp his. He squeezed it, and Vincent relaxed in his arms. They stood together in the moonlight even as the party went on beneath their feet. They shared another soft kiss.

"I love you." Cid whispered into Vincent's ear.

"And I love you."Vincent softly replied before he leaned down and placed another kiss on Cid's lips.


End file.
